It’s not what Joe Raptors Fan at home wants to hear, but even the loyalty-testing losses like Monday’s failed rally in Denver are at least moving the needle in the right direction.

As awful as the Raptors were in the second quarter, they were almost as good in the fourth.

Down by as many as 17, the Raptors got it all the way down to a one-point game but topped out there.

The Nuggets crumbled but they didn’t cave and another heartbreaking loss, in yet another heartbreaking way, was the result.

A day later and practising in the aptly named Sleep Train Arena (Kings fans haven’t had much to get excited about either), Raptors head coach Dwane Casey, who post-game pointed out everything his team had done wrong, went the other way and pointed out the things they had done right.

Kyle Lowry’s first half, as bad as it was, was trumped by a great second half.

Better still, it looks like whatever was holding him back from being the Kyle Lowry pre-foot problem is now back.

“I think he started trusting his foot a little bit more, putting more pressure on it and all of sudden, it’s ‘Oh, this is OK; I can go hard, I can attack more.’ I think that was more his approach than anything else.”

If that is indeed the case and Lowry is back to being the Lowry he was earlier in the season, that’s a huge Raptors win. This team cannot function, certainly can’t compete with the better teams in the NBA, when one or more of its key players aren’t performing as such.

Anyone who stuck through that horrid first half would have seen Lowry attacking the paint, getting to the basket and forcing Denver to either foul him or score at will.

His two-point first half on 1-of-6 shooting was followed by 5-of-10 second half and 22 points in that final 24 minutes thanks to a season high 11-for-11 half from the free-throw line.

Now that the pitbull is back in the point guard, all Casey has to worry about is helping him find that perfect balance of attack and facilitate.

“The thing with Kyle is a happy medium between trying to do too much, it’s all admirable, it’s not because he’s selfish — he’s trying to win — and so if you over-do it, the defence starts loading up on you, but he’ll find it. Being off 2 1/2 weeks, I think he’s kind of getting his sea legs a little bit more, his rhythm and he found it last night in the second half.”

If Lowry were the only Raptor to have been a little inconsistent of late or off his game, a handful of those 14 losses would be on the other side fo the win/loss column.

But it has not been just Lowry. Andrea Bargnani has taken his turn. Amir Johnson has had his. Really, pick a Raptor and try to say he has been more on than off this year. It’s a short list and more often than not it’s more than a couple of nights that have been off.

“I’m dying,” Casey said, half seriously. “Not dying, but I’m getting on them, pushing them in the right way because the worst thing you can do right now is have an amputated spirit. Right now, our spirits are good, even though we’re not getting the Ws, the end results we’re looking for. Our spirit is good and it’s up to me to keep ’em up, keep ’em going, teach the right way. Teaching to get better more so than putting them down, putting them down, ‘You’re not winning.’ Those things are things that I’m trying to do to keep them going and keep a group consistently performing.”

The onus Wednesday against the Kings is going to be on rookie Jonas Valanciunas and Andrea Bargnani — who is coming off one of his more energetic nights of the year.

The Kings big men, DeMarcus Cousins and Jason Thompson, like Kenneth Faried and Kosta Koufos in Denver are animals on the boards and keeping them at bay and letting the Raptors, who will enjoy an offensive advantage on an opponent for a change, take advantage of that will be key.

Second-chance possessions like the 23 offfensive boards the Nuggets had will be a sure recipe for disaster.

And right now this team needs a little bit of positive reinforcement that can only come with a win, no matter how much they’re moving the needle in the right direction.

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Raptors learning from heartbreak

It’s not what Joe Raptors Fan at home wants to hear, but even the loyalty-testing losses like Monday’s failed rally in Denver are at least moving the needle in the right direction.

As awful as the Raptors were in the second quarter, they were almost as good in the fourth.

Down by as many as 17, the Raptors got it all the way down to a one-point game but topped out there.

The Nuggets crumbled but they didn’t cave and another heartbreaking loss, in yet another heartbreaking way, was the result.

A day later and practising in the aptly named Sleep Train Arena (Kings fans haven’t had much to get excited about either), Raptors head coach Dwane Casey, who post-game pointed out everything his team had done wrong, went the other way and pointed out the things they had done right.

Kyle Lowry’s first half, as bad as it was, was trumped by a great second half.

Better still, it looks like whatever was holding him back from being the Kyle Lowry pre-foot problem